3013: FATED Read Online Free PDF Page A

answers to be found in her medical file. It was over a decade out of date, the last entries appearing just before Ciara turned twenty-one. After that, it was as if she’d vanished off the face of the planet.
    She held her fork over her plate while deciding what to eat first. “I’m healing. My ribs still ache and the incision’s tender, but that’s all. So long as I don’t try any sudden moves, nothing hurts, so I’m calling it an improvement. The boys were by earlier. They’re both bouncing back amazingly fast, all things considered. Losing their mom is hurting them more than anything else right now.”
    “There are some pains only time can heal,” Dane said, and Vance found himself nodding in agreement.
    “Their father, Tanner, is going to take the Alliance’s offer and move to Fort Saken. I can’t blame him, but Black Springs is going to be hard pressed to rebuild without Tanner’s experience. His family were farmers for generations. He knows more about hydroponics than anyone else there.” She speared a morsel of baked apple and popped it into her mouth with obvious enjoyment.
    Her low moan of appreciation was barely more than a hum, but it was enough to make Vance’s pulse quicken. He’d never been attracted to a patient before, but there was no denying that was what he was feeling. Too bad he couldn’t do anything about it. Not while she was under his care, anyway.
    “Is that what Black Springs was? A hydroponics station?” Dane asked.
    “More of a small, general farming community. Hydroponics is the easiest way to grow things out in the badlands. The soil’s too toxic to farm, but solar and wind power are plentiful, and the town was named for a natural spring that provided enough water.”
    “If the soil is still toxic, wouldn’t the water be, too?” Vance asked.
    “It’s a lot easier to purify water than dirt. At least, that’s what they told me.” Ciara shrugged. “I’m a medic, not a horticulturalist. I specialize in people, not plants. I do know that they were growing enough food to be able to trade with other towns. If they don’t rebuild, the others will need to find another way to get the produce they need.”
    “I thought that the Alliance was shipping food supplies to the badlands to help the ones still living out there. Isn’t that enough?” Vance was intrigued by what he was hearing. His only trip to the badlands had been the rescue mission that resulted in him meeting Ciara. So far, he hadn’t been able to learn much about what really went on out there.
    Ciara devoured the last bits of her pie before gesturing vaguely toward the room’s only window. “Too many people live out there. If they relied purely on the Alliance handouts, they’d starve to death. There are villages and communes scattered all across the badlands, and a number of nomads who don’t stay in one place too long. Alayna was one of those, always on the move. Some years, I’d only see her a couple of times unless she was hurt and needed to be patched up.”
    “Alayna’s one tough woman. Almost as tough as another rebel I’ve recently met,” Vance said, looking pointedly at Ciara. To his amazement, she blushed.
    She kept her eyes on her food as she started eating a bit of this and that. “I’m nothing special. Out there, you have to be tough, or you won’t last long. And I’m not really a rebel. I don’t take sides. I help anyone who needs it.”
    Dane asked the question Vance had been itching to. “You said you’re a medic. Can I ask where you lived and how you ended up working out in the badlands? Not many people would leave Alliance lands the way you have. ”
    Ciara glanced at Vance. “You didn’t tell him?”
    He shook his head. “It wasn’t my place. What I saw in your records was confidential, and I was looking at the medical stuff. I was trying to save your life at the time. Your personal history wasn’t what I needed to know.”
    Ciara was stunned. Vance would have to have seen